The Island off the Coast of Catveria
Catslavia (Morwiwurnn ~ ''Old Catverian), (officially known as 'The Island off the Coast of Catveria') is a small island located in the centre of the Pacific Ocean. The Island is famous for housing a sentient race of housecat, which refer to themselves simply as "the Cats", which are the sole inhabitants of Catslavia, having migrated from the much larger Catveria (''Mermi''y) many decades prior due to the Endless Winter (''Muhyyiw Myouryrr), which rendered Catveria's land uninhabitable. The Island The Island itself is not a large one, being approximately 100 square kilometres. The terrain is hilly, with Grant Hill being the island's largest and central most hill. The island is also covered in lush plains and light woodland areas, with very fertile soils. The climate is mild, with the months of July-November bringing heavy rains and the rest of the year being cool but dry. The Cats have built their settlement upon the island, including a large and elegant courthouse on the peak of Grant Hill which serves as parliament and the place of execution. Just a kilometer South-East of Grant Hill is New Moscow, the capital city of the Cats which includes suburban housing, shopping and transportation. The Cats History of the Cats The Cats inhabited Catveria, with a population of about 2000 living on the island, most of which were concentrated in 4 main towns and cities. There was the capital, Old City, as well as three large towns called Delitetown, East Delitetown and Klaw. However, in the North East of the Island a large, perennial weather system inexplicably formed which led to the freezing over of all the lakes and land in the region, which became an arctic wasteland. Furthermore, in the South East, hot winds from large deserts in Eastern continents blew large amounts of sand west, which landed on the raised South Eastern Plains of Catveria, forming a large, hot desert that began to spread west. About 1300 years ago, fearing for the future of their civilisation with these mounting extreme weather conditions, a small population of approximately 500 set off in their little submarines and ended up discovering The Small Island off the Coast of Catveria, which was quite small but very fertile. The island was not inhabited by any intelligent lifeforms thus the Cats declared it as their new home, naming the Capital New Moscow, after their God, which is the Russian city of Moscow. The island was also given an informal title: Catslavia, but it is formally recognised as The Small Island off the Coast of Catveria. Catslavia's inhabitants are a race of sentient housecats known as the Cats. They appear to be generally equal in intelligence to humans, and some can and prefer to walk upright. There are approximately 14000 Cats living on Catslavia. The national anthem of Catslavia is 'Moscow' by Ghengis Khan with the lyrics inspiring the Cats to believe that Moscow is a sacred city in the afterlife that is to be worshipped and praised. The Cats are an extremely nationalistic race with no fears about executing anybody that threatens their way of life, including those that smoke on Catslavian soil. Their execution ritual involves the captive being brought to the courthouse and put into a guillotine, whereupon the Cats in the courthouse will break into a passionate and beautifully in sync performance of 'Moscow', whereby at the conclusion of the song will decapitate the captive. It is also worthy to note that every street in Catslavia is named 'Electric Avenue'. This is so that Eddy Grant's 'Electric Avenue' can be put into every GPS system in the Cat's vehicles to be able to direct them accurately and efficiently to their desired destination. Every 'Electric Avenue' eventually leads up Grant Hill to the courthouse, although this is explained by the Eddy Grant GPS system "We gonna rock down to Electric Avenue, and then we'll take it higher" (referring to the fact that the Electric Avenue road will literally take you higher up Grant Hill). Language 1300 years ago, when all of the cats were living on Catveria, there were two main dialects. There was Old Catverian (Miomermi) which was spoken by nearly all of the inhabitants on the island, including those living in Old City (Miomi), Klaw (Miuew) and Delitetown (Merrmowmin). However in East Delitetown (Merrmowmineur) a regional dialect known as Eastern Catverian (Mermieur) was spoken, though it is widely believed most residents in that town could also speak Old Catverian too. These two languages were vaguely similar and developed from a common ancestor language. Today in Catslavia the official tongue is Catslavian. This is a composite language developed over the many generations of settlers. It has direct roots to Old Catverian, however it has been highly influenced by many human languages, mainly English. It is for this reason that humans find Catslavian far easier to learn than Old Catverian, as there are an abundance of sounds and spellings that are familiar to humans speakers, as opposed to Old Catverian, where many species that aren't cats struggle to produce the guttural sounds contained within it. Catslavian is so far removed from Old Catverian that some consider them to be under separate language families. It's assumed that all 14000 residents of Catslavia speak Catslavian fluently, and 96% do as a first language. There is a sizeable minority of about 500 cats still speak Old Catverian, mostly in Whisker Tip, and it is still taught in some kitten schools. East Catverian isn't spoken by anybody on Catslavia, and only a few poorly understood East Catverian texts have been transported to and preserved on the island itself. It is believed that Old Catverian, or a slightly evolved version of it is still spoken among the wild clans of bandit cats that still roam Catveria, although East Catverian may still be spoken in the habitable regions of East Catveria, as well as any other regional dialects that may have arisen in the hundreds of years since Catveria's official abandonment.